Erdoğan says Turkey will solve issue of using airspace in Idlib

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Feb. 26 said that Ankara will "hopefully" find a solution soon to use the last rebel bastion of Idlib's airspace.

Addressing ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmakers in a parliamentary group meeting, Erdoğan said that Turkey's "biggest problem" in Idlib is that it is unable to use the airspace. The region's airspace is currently being controlled by Russia and it has been supporting the regime's offensive against the Syrian opposition forces, which Turkey backs in the conflict.

"The biggest problem we have is that we cannot use the airspace [in Idlib]. Hopefully, we will soon find a solution to this too," Erdoğan said in the capital Ankara.

The president also ruled out Ankara taking any step back in Idlib and recalled the end-of-February deadline he set for the Syrian regime's withdrawal from the region.

"We will not take the smallest step back in Idlib and we will certainly push the regime outside the borders. We determined," he said.

Erdoğan also said that Ankara is taking these steps across its borders in Idlib "so that this will not happen in our own lands and cause tens or hundreds of times more losses" in the future.

"We neither have an eye on Syria's territory or its oil. We are not looking for adventures outside our borders. On the contrary, we are putting up a fight in order to maintain security along our borders," he said.

Erdoğan also repeated his call for Damascus to "stop its attacks as soon as possible" and pull back from Ankara's army outposts by the end of February.

"The deadline we gave to those who besieged our observation towers is expiring. Our demand is the regime to withdraw to boundaries set by the Sochi...